Of the Avari
''The Avari, the Unwilling, those who refused to make the Great Journey, '' are the most numerous of the Elves who remain on Middle Earth and its most diverse. Eventually leaving Cuvienen, some indeed did travel West, some joining the Nandor (later the Elves of Lothlorien and Mirkwood) and a few making it into Beleriand in the 1st Age where they mingled with the Laiquendi, the Green Elves of Ossiriand. But many also travelled South and East, and even Northwards over time and especially at the end of the 1st Age as the very lands they held so dear quaked under their feet and theSea of Helkar largely drained away or sank into the Underworld as the Great War of Wrath was waged that led to the final downfall of Morgoth. To Cuvienen there is no returning for indeed Cuvienen was no more. The Tribes of the Avari The tribes of the Avari were six: the Kindi, Cuind, Hwenti,Windan, Kinn-lai, and Penni. (all cognates of the Primitive Quendian word Kwendî (the Speakers) Their languages over time became as varied as indeed their cultures became, sundered as they were as they made their homes amongst mountains, steppe, forests and deserts. They were great teachers to the men of the East, instructing them both in language and in many crafts. Now the Penni and the Cuind (both of the Nelyar) were those who went Westwards, some of their number joining other kindred they found as has been said. But not all, many kept to themselves and fled into the South of at first Beliriand and eventually as it sank, found their way into Harad and the South. Some wandered the resinous giant Thuja forests at the feet of the Grey Mtns. of the South, becoming great hunters. Others roamed among the great equatorial jungles that lay at the tangled feet of the Yellow Mtns. becoming a quiet, gardening and gathering people, seldom seen. There was a remnant of the Penni that lingered further North along the Great Anduin. There, they found the place where the Ent-wives had made their vast gardens and it is there that they learned viniculture. War eventually forced them to find safer refuge in Rhun that later became known as Dorwinion. The Hwenti and Windan (both Tatyar), ventured into the mid-most regions of Endor, into what had become the Land of Lakes, the Eastern remnant of the once vast Sea of Helkar. Many settled in the Beech forests and hill-country on the shores of its lakes, becoming a people that navigated the region’s many watersand enjoying its many riches. But still others journeyed to the arid but beautiful Western slopes of the Mountains of the Wind. Being as both tribes were of the Tatyar, the Clan which gave birth to the Noldor, they were the most skilled in crafts and knowledge among the Avari. They tended to work with stone and metal and build enduring dwellings and even small cities, slowly extending westward into the steppe and desert, becoming adept in the ways of survival in a barren land. They traded heavily with the Khazad of the Orocarni via the wandering companies of the Avari. They founded one of the four great Avarin realms of Eastern Middle Earth. Finally, the Kinn-lai (Tatyar) and the Kindi (Nelyar) dispersed perhaps most widely, North and South but always Eastwards. Some settled in the vast forests East of the Orocarni (a Woodland realm in the angle formed by 2 great rivers, its people of migratory habits,seasonally going downstream to the Northern Sea following the herds they culled and collecting the plentiful gold that lay in its waters), others far beyond the Black Mtns. to the shores of the Eastern Sea, becoming a far-ranging seafaring people – at first modest fishers and coastal traders, eventually becoming a mighty people, expanding to the great Eastern Islands and founding many colonies. A final branch settled the far SE along the rivers that drained the high Plateau of the Wind. They were an agricultural people and interacted much with the Mannish folk of the region, teachingthem the arts of husbandry and the plow. From that branch a kingdom was founded along the great river valley of the Nunduinë that flowed Eastwards from the mighty Mtns. of the wind. There are many wandering companies, loosely affiliated as a kind of guild, from many different tribes roaming the wide Eastern lands and travel West as far as the Sea of Rhun and North to the frozen seas. It is they that bring tidings of both East and West to far-sundered peoples.They are the polyglots of the Avari, being able to discourse in the now diverse and often mutually unintelligible Avari dialects. They in addition often act as the carriers of trade between the Avari and the other peoples of Palisor and Rhun. Map of Avari realms